


Scenes from the Darkest Timeline

by Necromommycon



Category: Community
Genre: Darkest Timeline, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 03:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/605079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Necromommycon/pseuds/Necromommycon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every cloud has a silver lining, and even the Darkest Timeline must have a few little glimmers of hope for *someone*, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scenes from the Darkest Timeline

**Author's Note:**

  * For [matchsticks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/matchsticks/gifts).



“Where is she now?” Shirley asked quietly, one hand against her head. Britta glanced over her shoulder before answering.

“In the bathroom. She’s covered the walls with bubble wrap. She keeps saying it’s a padded cell, and laughing.”

Troy and Abed exchanged a look. “Tweeting it!” Troy squeaked.

“Cruel,” Abed said approvingly. “Cruel cruel cruel.” 

Britta frowned at their matching t-shirts. “#Annie’sMeltdown? Really, guys?” Troy shrugged.

“Anybody have any aspirin?” Shirley asked, wincing. “It’s awfully bright in here. And loud. And where’s Jeffrey?”

“At the mall,” Britta snapped, and cruelly pulled open another curtain.

 

“Well, well,” Dean Pelton said, insinuating himself around the change-room wall. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Jeff glared. “So a one-armed man can’t shop for blazers now?”

Pelton held up his hands, conciliatory. “I didn’t say that. Did I say that? You’re still a very handsome man, Mr. Winger. Very. It’s just that I was expecting you to be with the rest of your study group, on this,” his face fell as he spoke, “very sad occasion.”

“You think I want to be there to watch them take Annie away?” Jeff sneered at his own reflection, while Pelton’s facial expression shifted through several attempts at sympathy and understanding. 

“No, no, of course not.” The Dean made soothing noises. “No. Absolutely not. But, you know, if you need a sympathetic ear, or a shoulder to cry on…” His voice trailed off hopefully.

“That’s not what I need.” Jeff shifted from side to side, trying to find the angle that showed off his washboard abs but hid the damage. 

There was a pause. “So what do you need?” For once the Dean’s voice wasn’t overloaded with embarrassing levels of emotion, real or feigned. For once he sounded as if he’d genuinely forgotten himself.

“What I need, Craig,”—the Dean’s eyes widened as Jeff spoke—“is to forget. Can you do that? Make me forget? Let’s go do something utterly stupid and pointless, and when that stops working, let’s get drunker than Shirley.”

Pelton frowned. It was a tempting offer, but…

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” he asked, his pout of worried disapproval so overplayed it was a caricature of itself.

“No, I think it’s a bad idea. But I have nothing left but bad ideas. I don’t need to work, thanks to Pierce’s lunatic decision to write me into his will; I can’t stand to be near my friends; I can’t muster up enough interest to hate my enemies. All I have is time, money, and most of my body.” The Dean made a strangled noise, but didn’t, or possibly couldn’t, speak. “I intend to blow through all three. You in?”

“Uh,” the Dean managed, and fainted.

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely loved Matchsticks' description of Dean Pelton as " awkward and creepy and just wants so hard for people to love him," because that's how I see him too, so I thought I'd try a little light Darkest Timeline fic, and tweak the circumstances of his day at the mall with Jeff.


End file.
